The Ins and Outs of Octopath Traveler Combat

Once you choose your main traveler in Octopath Traveler you will quickly become immersed in battle. (Not sure who to choose as your main traveler? Check out our article on the Travelers!) This game is a JRPG (Japanese Role Playing Game) and the combat is a traditional turn-based system.

This article will give you a great overview of the combat system and give you the knowledge to set you up to master the combat system.

How Does The Combat System Work?

Combat in Octopath Traveler is turn-based. On the top of the screen, there will be a turn indicator, keeping you up to date with whose turn is coming up.

Each of your travelers will have a bar indicating their HP and SP. Both of these levels are dependent on the character you have as well as their level. HP stands for health power and is a traditional power bar. SP, also known as mana or spell power, indicates how much you can ‘spend’ on special moves or attacks. How much SP a move cost depends on what move you are making as well as the character who is attacking. Not all moves cost SP.

Any enemy or boss you come up against also has an HP meter. However, this meter is hidden at all times unless one of your characters has developed the ability to reveal an enemy’s HP level. Revealing an enemy’s HP does use up and entire turn, so it is important to not use this skill too frequently.

Altogether, this seems fairly easy and straightforward, but there are a couple of other things that you need to know about combat to fully master this game.

Weaknesses

One of the first things you will notice about your enemies is that they have a box with a question mark. This indicates what type of weapons and spells they are most vulnerable to. When you first encounter a particular type of enemy, their weaknesses will be completely hidden. The more that you battle them, the more weaknesses will be uncovered, assuming that you are using different weapons and spells that are not all the same weakness category. So even if you find one move that does a lot of damage, don’t fall back on that one constantly.

(This is one point that Cyrus comes in particularly handy- one of his skills allows you to uncover enemies weaknesses).

There are 12 different types of weaknesses, some in the form weapons and some in the form of spells: Spear, Sword, Bow, Axe, Dagger, Staff, Ice, Fire, Lightning, Dark, Holy, and Wind.

Depending on how strong a particular enemy is, they will be vulnerable to one or two (stronger enemies) or as many as five (weaker enemies). If you have faced a particular type of enemy previously, the weaknesses you have already uncovered will still be uncovered the next time you face them. However, when you face off against a boss, there is no forewarning about what weaknesses they have.

Dealing Damage To Your Enemies

When it comes to being one of your traveler’s turns, there will be several different options you are able to take. Additionally, the further along in the game you get, the larger variety of spells and weapons you have access to. Some spells and weapons will dole out an equal amount of damage to all of the enemies, while some will attack one enemy and do a larger amount of damage to them.

Each character for sure has the option to use an item to aid themselves or a fellow traveler or attempt to flee the situation to avoid taking further damage. It is much more difficult to flee from a high-level enemy.

Beyond this, the attacks that your character is able to complete depends on their primary and secondary jobs. For example, a character that has a primary or secondary job as a hunter or warrior will deal higher levels of damage as opposed to a character like Ophelia who is unable to deal much damage unless her enemy has a light weakness (However, don’t count out Ophelia- her healing qualities are much appreciated in high-level enemy combat situations!)

Defending And Why It Is Important

As you are starting Octopath Traveler or any turn-based combat system, it can be tempting to simply learn all about the attack aspect of combat and forget about other moves your character is able to do. However, it is important to learn about defending as you are becoming more familiar with combat in Octopath Traveler. Not only will this help protect you, and sometimes those in your party, from taking damage, this will also move that character to the top of the turn order for the next round of turns. This is particularly helpful when you are able to get to the point of strategizing turn order in order to more quickly defeat certain enemies.

Breaking Your Enemy

In addition to the small question marks that you will see next to your enemy, you will also see a shield with a number on it. This is what is called their breaking point. Every time you attack your enemy, this number will go down by one. When the shield hits 0, your enemy is considered “broken”.

During this period after breaking, your enemy will be much more vulnerable to damage. Additionally, that particular enemy will lose it’s current and next turn. During this time, it is important to unleash particularly strong attacks in order to drain your opponent. If you are unable to completely defeat your enemy at this point, they will regain their shields. However, regardless of whether or not they have their shields up when they run out of HP, they will be defeated.

Battle Points

After each of your turns, you will notice that the dots above your HP and SP meters are increasing. These are your battle points. You can have up to 4 at one time, and these increase your damage or healing exponentially! You can use all of your points at once after you have earned them, or only one or two at a time. Saving your battle points for when one of your more difficult enemies has broken will help you cut through their HP much more quickly.

Conclusion

Combat is a huge aspect of Octopath Traveler, and quickly progresses, introducing you to bosses and lesser enemies, all with amazing graphics. This is just a brief overview of our combat system. Be sure to check out our other articles to learn more about Octopath Traveler and the combat within!